Dog-ear — or Donkey-ear if you’re German — or Pig-ear if you’re South African — is a bookmark that thinks like a magazine, or a magazine that can used as a bookmark. Either way, like the equally wonderful Matchbook Stories, it’s a object that proves the maxims “more than a mouthful goes to waste” and my favourite “a simple idea done well”.

Nine panels, each with a cherry picked short story, poem or illustration to stop you folding the page down. I eat with my elbows on the table. I drink cappuccinos after eleven. I have even poured white wine into a glass that previously held red. But the line is very firmly drawn at creasing the page corner over. Thank you Pete and Joe.

It’s free from stockists listed on the site, or being egalitarian a printable pdf is provided to make your own. The Tattered Page Liberation Front starts here.

For those wondering, Matchbook Stories is the creation of Kyle Petersen who publishes a super short story of not more than 300 characters inside a matchbook cover. I would be a very happy literary arsonist but it’s impossible to get a book unless you live Stateside. No mailbag fires and Fedex wont ship matches.

My story “Foundation” was short listed for Issue one, read it on the site.

If we’re being inclusive I ought to give a shout-out to Stack, a service that posts you a fresh independent magazine once a month. The wonderfulness doesn’t stop there, like a tangerine in a Christmas stocking they are prone to popping a present into the bottom of the envelope. Which is where Dog-ear raised its head. Stack will be solving my present list come December.

Droga posted themselves on my Facebook page (because I let the love in from strangers).

They say “Droga Magazine: is a web based magazine that brings the finest works in photography, illustration, typography, street arts, fashion and many more. The periodicity is bimonthly. Download it for free.”

But I’m posting because the world can not have enough illustration.

There’s also some fabulous photography too, but like the song of the unaccompanied voice is there anything as graceful as the marks from a human hand.

King’s College Choir – Thomas Tallis – Spem in aliumApologies for naughty copyright posting, but really, if you haven’t heard this take 12 minutes out from your life.
Play loud and undisturbed.See also: Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet

Like this:

The heading is a misnomer really. Pentru Ochi is too minimalist to be called a blog, more akin to a tumblr. Except it doesn’t share the annoying habit of tumblrs in leaving images unattributed.

Translated from Romanian it means “for eyes” and is curated by Cristi in a wonderfully simple fashion. He posts just one image under the artist’s name, a photograph or illustration, which links through to their website or portfolio.